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One foot in the past, one foot in the future
*** Enjoying the present ***

Book Reviews and recommended Good Reads.

Below are the fiction book reviews !

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The Night Shift

Alan Morton

Do you remember the mainframe system days and the joys or otherwise of
THE NIGHT SHIFT ?

Here in the Authors own words is the background:-

I spent over 40 years in IT, although when I started it wasn’t called IT ... it was Computers.

Although I have rather romanced night shifts, they were tough. We worked a two shift system, days and nights, and we were constantly trying to adjust. Our body clocks were shot to pieces for quite a few years.

Being the only personnel on site during the night, there was a certain amount of scope as to certain activities we could get up to, some of which are covered in the book.

And here is the Webmasters review of the book.

Alan Morton has captured the spirit of those days and the content of his book typifies the " lets just get it done, and go home " attitude that drove Computer Operators, Engineers and Programmers who were debugging rouge code way into the early hours of the morning.

We all met people who had what seemed like a good idea, in the wee small hours of the morning, sometimes they were right, and sometimes the situation got even more "interesting " after the repercussions of the idea became obvious.

Alan has re-captured those days perfectly and I do assure the reader that it will bring back many memories, and laughs, from your own past as you enjoy the very real characters Alan has created, as they survive from Night Shift to Night Shift as Computer Operators.

A good read and content that is so very TRUE of those late nights from many years ago.

The Webmaster "Recommends" this read.

It is available From :- Ebay, Amazon in the next few weeks.
http://www.lulu.com/
http://www.lulu.com/gb/en/shop/alan-morton/the-night-shift/paperback/product-21800975.html

The Difference Engine

ISBN : 978-0575099401

Gibson and Sterling

A good Science Fiction Story, Just suppose Babbage managed to build
his Difference Engine, a story of a steam powered world of computing
Based on punched cards that arrived over a century earlier than we experienced.

It has everything for a good read :- Adventure, Intrige, War, and even a moderate amount of Love interest. The world experiences Computing and meets the same
challenges it has mastered today, but in a Dickensien and Holmsien World of the 1800's.
A first Class Read

Cybernia

ISBN : 978-0340173244

Lou Cameron

Another Science Fiction great, but this time in the mid 1980's. An automated
town is built and when the Computer in charge takes over running the town, it firesthe town manager.

The story of a Systems Man with a town wide system that is ' Acting Up ' and needs an urgent fix before the system realises that he is in town and turns its attention to
' Removing ' him as well. A wonderful Romp through the world of 1980's computing.
Its sense of Humour balanced against the singular probability that this could just
be a real situation.
Another First Class Read.

Below are the technical book reviews !

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The Turing Guide

ISBN : 978-0198747833

Jack Copeland, Jonathan Bowen, Mark Sprevak, Robin Wilson

A complete guide to one of the greatest scientists of the 20th centuary.
Feel free to dip into this book and enjoy any pages that happen to fall open.
The work is both comprehensive and
rewarding to read, covering the wide range that
Alan Turing's intellect enbraced during his life.

From designing computers to the artistic possibilities created from his theory of metamorphosis, the later proving that
nature is not a set of random reactions. But patterning, even in
lava flowhas a probable and therefore predictable numerical scource.
An engaging read that you will return to again and again.

The Cogwheel Brain

ISBN : 978-0349112398

Doron Swade

A concise work on the real story of Babbage and the Difference Engine.
A work I read without realising that in later life I would share a deep
interest in this story and the relationship between Babbage and Ada Lovelace.

Where the Practical engineer that was Babbage and the Application View that was
Countess Lovelace's would meet and between them Forge the Basic principles we
accept as normal in the computer world of today. A Great Complimentry read to the fictional
Work above